The
DNA Project

The text of this section, together with the results
chart, and the text of the following section About DNA Testingis available as a PDF document called The
Warburton Surname DNA Project.

The
Warburton DNA Project

DNA testing has recently begun to play an important
role in genealogical research, as an addition to traditional methods. A
Y-chromosome DNA test will determine the probability that the testee shares a
common ancestor with any other Warburton who as taken the test. This common
ancestor will have lived within the last 700 years i.e. the period during
which the name has been in use. Therefore I intend it should play a central role
in my One-name Study. For each Warburton clan identified by the study I plan to
identify the typical Y-chromosome profile of that clan. This requires the
identification of 2 similar profiles from descendants of the clan's oldest
common ancestor.

At this stage the project is only seeking holders of
the Warburton surname. However, if you believe your name is derived from
Warburton, and you wish to test your assumption, you will be welcome to
participate.

Before contributing you may want to learn more about
DNA testing. My own explanation can be found in the About
DNA Testing section of this site. You will also find some references.

The project will aim to provide other information:

·Each DNA includes a predicted haplotype. The historical
background for each distinct Warburton haplotype will be documented.

·Some DNA profiles may be associated with specific localities.
This could be particularly useful in helping New World Warburtons trace their
roots.

·The degree of variation between the profiles in a clan will
give an indication of the time since the clan’s common ancestor lived. This
will indicate whether there were multiple adopters of the Warburton name in the
Middle Ages, or if most distinct clans originate from later, non-paternal
events. I discuss ‘non-parental events ‘ in The
Significance of Distinct Profiles below.

The success of the project depends on numbers of
Warburtons participating. Because it tests the Y-chromosome, only males can be
tested. However female genealogists can get involved by testing a male relative.
Also because a change in a 43 marker DNA profile will only occur on average once
every 12 generations it is only necessary to test one male from each family. I
would recommend you chose the oldest available male. In fact where a
relationship is already known, it is unnecessary foranyone closer than 3rd cousins to take the test as it would
yield little information, but runs the risk of finding an unknown break in the
line.

How
to Participate

Enrolment in the DNA Project is now possible without
taking a test and brings with it membership of the Warburton Society.
Just click here
to go to the DNA Heritage join page, or if you have a query or comment click here
to send me an email. If you would wish to take the test simply select to enrol
with a test. The project uses the full 43-marker test. Because this project is
part of the Advantage program at DNA Heritage a Y-chromosome DNA test taken as
part of this project costs $149 US (a $50 discount on the standard price). As an
alternative Ancestry
currently offer a DNA test at just $79 for 37 markers for subscribers. If you
already subscribe to Ancestry this may be a cheaper option. You can enrol
without a test and send me your results and I will include them in the project

However, before proceeding we should explore your
known Warburton ancestors to see if a link can be established with a known
family. This might obviate the need for a test as I may already have a profile
for your family.

The process of testing, payment, and notification of
individual results is being run by DNA
Heritage. DNA Heritage will confirm your enrolment by email, and issue an
invoice which can be paid online by credit or debit card. On receipt of payment
they will send a test kit to your home. When the test kit arrives you simply
perform the test, which involves taking a swab from inside your cheek, and mail
the kit back. There are two options. You can either mail the kit direct to the
laboratory in Utah, or mail it to the UK office in Wiltshire for onward
dispatch. There will be addressed envelopes for each.. You will then be informed
when the result is available, and how to access it. I get copies of all DNA
Heritage communications.

I will include your results in my Results
spreadsheet and in my Commentary
on Results. I will also identify which Warburton clan your profile is
associated with.

I may also place the results on 2 databases for
comparison purposes. These are Ybase,
a
free, open global genealogical resource that is closely linked to DNA Heritage,
and Ysearch,
a similar resource from Family Tree DNA. In each case the DNA result will only
be identified by a code and place of origin, and of course that it is a
Warburton profile. See my Privacy Policy. Your
participation signifies your agreement to me using your result in this way.

Project
Fund

I have established a Project Fund so I can invite
anyone to take a test whose profile is of more interest to the project than to
themselves. I can also offer a Warburton Y-chromosome DNA test (normally
$189) to
anyone who donates $150 to the fund. Just click here
to go to the Project Page at DNA Heritage, and click the 'Make a Donation'
button. Then send me an email by clicking herestating the name,
postal address, and optionally email address of the person to be tested and I
will get a test kit sent, and when the time comes, pay the invoice from the
Project Fund. If a group of you wish to pool donations to fund a test that's
fine.

Also
simple donations are welcome. Every little helps. If you would like to support the project by making a donation
to the fund please click here.
This will take you to the appropriate page at DNA Heritage where you can make
your donation via credit card, or PayPal.

DNA
Heritage

DNA
Heritage has been chosen as the testing site for the Warburton Surname DNA
Project for the following reasons:

1.They offer a very comprehensive 43-marker test at a
reasonable price. If the project administrator is a typical Warburton it is
possible that many participants will conform to the most common Western European
DNA profile (called the Atlantic Modal Haplotype). It is therefore important to
start with a high-resolution test that will differentiate participants
sufficiently.

2.At $199 for the 43-marker test (reduced to $149 for participants in the
Warburton surname project), they offer a competitive price.

3.They provide a service for administrating and reporting on a
Surname project.

4.They are a British company, but conduct all their testing in
the USA.

Commentary
on Results

Each participant will receive his own results in a
report from DNA Heritage. As Project Administrator I will also see their results
and will be able to compare them with other results. A table of results can be
found here.

The following commentary assumes knowledge of some DNA
concepts. These are explained on the About DNA page of this site.

I
now have results from 16 participants, plus a few possibly related
profiles from other sources. These results have produced 10
different profiles. There are also four different haplotypes.

In addition I have the results of two possible
Warburtons, one from Ysearch, and one supplied independently. The owner of the
Ysearch Y-chromosome has a family legend that that his ancestor was a Warburton
who used his mother’s maiden name to escape certain lady problems when
emigrating to America. As yet this profile has no match so further genealogical
research and/or a genetic match with a genuine Warburton are needed to confirm
this. The second profile from a man who is believed to be descended from the
brother of a man who adopted the Warburton name, and so his profile is
potentially the profile of the Warburton descendants (see The Mongan
Warburtons in Warburton Clans).

To understand the significance of these results I will
describe my approach to analysing the results, before discussing the
significance of distinct profiles, and describing matched profiles. There is
also a section explaining the various haplotypes, and one on my mitochondria
(female ancestry).

Analysis

The first task in analysing the results is to group
matching results. A match occurs when the number of individual marker mismatches
is low enough to have occurred in the 750 years, or 20 generations, since the
first Warburton, based on known marker mutation rates.

The
A Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) Calculator is then used to assess
the number of generations back to the common ancestor. I use two
calculators that are available on the Internet. The first
uses formulae developed by Bruce Walsh and presented in a paper in
Genetics to determine the probability of the common ancestor being
within any number of generations, given the number of markers, the
mutation rate, and the number of mutations. The second,,
by Ann Turner, uses a Poisson distribution to determine the probability
for any number of mutations given the number of markers, the mutation
rate, and the number of transmission events from father to son. As
these calculators don’t use identical distributions the results are not
identical though they are similar. Also note a generation involves two
transmissions. A grandson is two generations from his grandfather, but
there are four transmission events between two cousins who share a
grandfather.

These
calculators need a mutation rate as input. A paper by John F
Chandler in 2006 and documented on Wikipedia states that different
markers have been observed to have different mutation rates, varying
from 0.055% to 0.8%. However not all the markers from the DNA Heritage
test are covered though there are figures for some other markers in the
work of Doug MacDonald from 2004. An average of the mutation rates is
0.28%. However DNA Heritage use a rate of 0.3%, and the MRCA calculator
at moseswalker.com is saying that the latest research points to a rate
of 0.43%.

Based
on these rates, the probability of a match given 1 - 5 mismatches in a
43 marker test is as follows. The likely number of generations quoted
represent the range from a 40% probability to a 60% probability of the
common ancestor being that number of generations back:

1 mismatch:
At a 0.0043 mutation rate the common ancestor probably lived 3.9 to
5.8 generations ago with roughly an 87% probability that the
common ancestor was within 10 generations. At a 0.003 mutation rate the
common ancestor probably lived 5.5 to 8.1 generations ago and the
probability of being within 10 generations drops to about 69%.

2 mismatches:
At a 0.0043 mutation the common ancestor probably lived 6.5 to 8.8
generations ago with roughly an 69% probability that the common
ancestor was within 10 generations. At a 0.003 mutation rate the common
ancestor probably lived 9.2 to 12.5 generations ago and the probability
of being within 10 generations drops to about 45%.

3 mismatches:
At a 0.0043 mutation rate the common ancestor probably lived 9.2 to
11.9 generations ago with roughly an 92% probability that the common
ancestor was within 20 generations. At a 0.003 mutation rate the common
ancestor probably lived 13.1 to 16.9 generations ago and the
probability of being within 20 generations drops to about 72%.

4 mismatches:
At a 0.0043 mutation rate the common ancestor probably lived 11.9 to
15.0 generations ago with roughly an 82% probability that the
common ancestor was within 20 generations. At a 0.003 mutation rate the
common ancestor probably lived 17.0 to 21.5 generations ago and the
probability of being within 20 generations drops to about 54%

5 mismatches:
At a 0.0043 mutation rate the common ancestor probably lived 14.8 to
18.2 generations ago with roughly an 69% probability that the
common ancestor was within 20 generations. At a 0.003 mutation rate the
common ancestor probably lived 21.1 to 26.1 generations ago and the
probability of being within 20 generations drops to about 35%

Six
to eight mismatches combined this with a shared surname might a common
ancestor, but more than that would indicate the participants are
probably not related.

An
apparent match, but where the surnames are different, could be evidence
of an illegitimate birth where the father was a Warburton, but because
mutations occur in both directions it is possible for a match to
be purely random. Additional evidence would be needed to confirm a link.

The
next step is to analyse each group, or clan of matching profiles in
conjunction with known genealogy. The two objectives of this analysis
will be to estimate how long ago this clan adopted the Warburton
name, and to build a tool that will aid genealogical research.Both
these objectives will require many more results than are currently
available.

Estimates of the time of adoption will be based
primarily on the amount of variability and genetic distance evidenced amongst
the matched profiles. Greater variability and genetic distance implies an
earlier adoption. Results will be cross checked with known genealogy where
possible.

The aid to genealogical research will be in the form
of a phylogenetic tree for each clan. This is a form of family tree which shows
where and when individual marker mutations can have occurred. In this way new
results can be matched to specific parts of the tree, rather than the tree as a
whole, giving a more precise indication where common ancestors may be found.

Finally I would hope to determine if there is truth in
the premise that Sir Peter de Dutton was the only original adopter of the
Warburton name. It is inevitable that over the last 750 years events such as
adoptions or illegitimate births will mean many Warburtons no longer carry the
Y-chromosome of Peter de Dutton, even if such events do not deny their link to
the original family. But if a significant proportion (circa 50%) of modern
Warburtons show they have a good probability of sharing a common ancestor around
750 years ago, and no other strong clans of similar age emerge, then this would
support the premise of Norman Warburton’s book.

The
Significance of Distinct Profiles

The
significance of 10 un-matched profiles is that 9 separate individuals
have adopted the Warburton name at some point in the last
750 years.It is worth reviewing
the situations by which such adoptions might occur (the earliest ancestor of one
participant is known to be illegitimate).

Initially when surnames were first being required to
aid feudal record keeping, around the time when Sir Peter de Dutton changed his
name, it is quite conceivable that others from the Warburton estates, or the
village of Warburton also decided to adopt the name of their place of birth.

Since thenothers may have taken the Warburton name rather than their father’s.Such an occasion is referred to as a 'non-parental
event'. Examples include both adoption and illegitimacy.

Adoption usually occurred when a widow with sons remarried. Often, though not
always, the sons would take their new fathers name. Less common would be
when an estate was inherited through a daughter. The Warburtons of Arley
are an example of this. When the estate passed via a niece to the Egerton
family they changed their name to Egerton-Warburton. Had the Egerton-Warburton
dynasty at Arley Hall not ended when the inheritance again passed down the
female line, the Egerton might have eventually been dropped. As it was (as I
noticed on a recent visit to Arley Hall) the Egerton was often dropped
informally, for example in the cast list of plays they put on at the Hall in the
19th century.

Another example is Charles Mongan Warburton, Bishop of Cloyne in Ireland,
who started his life as a Mongan and changed his name to Warburton( the name of
his maternal cousins) in 1792 (see The Mongan
Warburtons in Warburton Clans).

Illegitimacy would include the case of unmarried mothers. In this case
the child mighttake either the
mother's name or the father’s name. These baptisms should be identifiable in
the parish records, where illegitimacy seems to occur quite frequently. However
if a wife should conceive by another man she might pass off the child as
the child of her husband.Indeed
this could be a deliberate ploy to give an infertile husband an heir. In this
case it would be undetectable in the records.

It is estimated that in each generation the rate of
‘non-paternity events’ is 1-2%. Since the Warburton name is 750
years old, if we assume a generation every 30 years, there have been 25
generations of Warburtons. Therefore it is possible that 50% of modern Warburtons have a
non-paternity event somewhere in their history.

The Warburton Profiles

So
far I have uncovered 9
different Warburton profiles, including my own, that
have no chance of sharing a common male ancestor in the last 750 years, or even
7500 years, with either me or each other. I also have a 10th
profile that may also prove to belong to a Warburton clan. Only
two of the profiles have been encountered more than once. These profiles and the
Warburton clans to which they relate are as follows:

1.Two
results are from The Warburtons of Garryhinch. This clan consists of the
descendants of three brothers who were present in Ireland in the second half of
the 17th century. The results come from descendants of two of the
three brothers, so their common ancestor is about 9 generations back. There
were 4 mismatches over 43 markers (2 in the same multi-copy marker). I use a
mutation rate of .0028, which means that whilst 4 mutations is slightly up on
what one might expect, it would still occur in 10% of such situations, so I
believe this profile is proved to be a marker for the whole of the
clan. Furthermore the family claims kinship with the Warburtons of Arley and
although there is nothing to corroborate this, the claim has at times been
accepted by the family at Arley. Therefore it is possible that this profile is
that of the Warburtons of Arley. It would take matches with subjects outside the
Garryhinch clan to increase this possibility. The predicted haplotype of this
profile is J2.

2.My own profile, from The Warburtons of Hale Barns is matched with several others. My research into possible links is documented in My Genetic Links under My Genealogy. I have also produced a Phylogenetic Tree for the clan. The haplotype of this clan is R1b1b2. The matched profiles are found in the following clans (letters refer to the Phylogenetic Tree):

The Descendants of Henry Warburton of Ashton-Upon-Mersey (A).
This profile is closest to all the others and is therefore used as the
base for calculations. My own profile has one mismatch from it. It is
the only situation where a possible link has been established, with a
common ancestor 9 generations ago.

The Descendants of George Warburton of Widnes (B).
This profile has one mismatch from the base and two from my profile.
Genealogically the common ancestor must also be at least 9 generations
ago, and is probably the same as for (A).

The Descendants of Hamlet Warburton of Warrington (C).
This profile has three mismatches from the base. Genealogically the
common ancestor must be at least 11 generations ago as all more recent
possibilities can be discounted.

The Descendants of George Warburton and Mary Chantler (D).
This profile has four mismatches from the base. Genealogically the
common ancestor must be at least 11 generations ago as all more recent
possibilities can be discounted. This profile also has five mismatches
from (C) suggesting the common ancestor of (C) and (D) is 15-18 generations ago.

I was contacted by a Warbritton (E)
from Texas wondering if Warbritton derives from Warburton. He has a
profile that has 2 differences from the base. Warbritton appears
several times in Ancestry transcriptions of census entries, but is
virtually absent in modern Britain. It is slightly more frequent in the
USA. The close match would appear to confirm the link between the two
names, though the change might be by design rather than accident. There
is a suggestion the name was adopted to signify allegiance during the
American War of Independence. No actual evidence to explain the link
has yet been found.

I
found a profile on Ybase that differs in only one marker from the
descendant of Henry Warburton of Ashton-Upon-Mersey. It originates from
a William Hunter (F)
born circa 1861 in Lancashire. There is a possibility this being a
random match, but it is also possible , especially given his origins,
that he has a Warburton in his ancestry. There are also a few close DNA
matches on Ancestry which may be random, but might signify a link
through a ‘non-paternal’ event.

3.Three
results are from The Warburtons of Warburton. Of these 2 match. Their
common ancestor is William Warburton (1733-1822), who is 6 generations
back from the participants. One of these participants is
related to Norman Warburton, author of Warburton: The Village and the
Family, in which he also published his own tree back to the 16th
century in Warburton village. The predicted haplotype is I1a -AS13
which is typical of the Anglo Saxons. The third result is a mismatch,
and is haplotype R1b. The identified common ancestor of all three
participants is 8 generations back, and is the grandfather of William
(1733-1822). The mismatch implies either an error in the tree, or the
mismatched profile was introduced by an unrecorded non-paternal event
in one of the 10 links from William (1733-1822), up to his grandfather,
and down to the third participant. It is still not certain which
profile is the original clan profile.

4.A result from The Warburtons of Bowdon and Timperley relates to a
family who, like my own ancestors, have an
association with Bowdon Parish dating back to before 1600. Current on-line haplotype predictors identify the haplotype as I2b1 Continental with a 69% chance of being Continental 1.

5.A
result from The Warburtons of Sandbach relates to the family of Ralph
Warburton who was born circa 1817 in Sandbach, Cheshire to a father named
Joseph. The predicted haplotype is R1b.

One result comes from a participant in Australia whose earliest known
ancestor was born in the Rochdale, Lancashire area circa 1770. This
clan has not yet been documented The predicted haplotype is R1b.

6.
One result comes from a participant in Australia whose earliest known
ancestor was born in the Rochdale, Lancashire area circa 1770. This
clan has not yet been documented. The predicted haplotype is R1b.

7.One result comes from a participant whose earliest known ancestor was
born in 1820 in Stockport to a father named Josiah. This
clan has not yet been documented. The
predicted haplotype is R1b. There is some evidence that this might come
from an illegitimacy and father Josiah is a face saving white lie.

8.
One result comes from a line which appeared in Nottinghamshire in the
19th century, with the father said to be born in 1809. There is no
earlier evidence of the family in Nottinghamshire, and they probably
moved there to work in the coal mines. Their origin is uncertain. The
predicted haplotype is R1b.

9.One result comes from a descendant of John Charles Warburton born in 1808
in Wilmslow, Cheshire, the illegitimate son of Alice, the daughter on Peter
Warburton and Alice Holt. It is not surprisingly unique. In due course
traditional genealogical research may determine which clan Peter belongs to.

10.The Mongan profile provided by the Mongans of Australia may in due course
be proved to be the profile of the descendants of Charles Terence Mongan
Warburton, the Bishop of Cloyne.

Even if a non-paternity rate
of 2% were to mean that 50% of modern Warburtons have such an event in their
ancestry, the number of unmatched profiles, compared with matched ones, is
beginning to suggest that more than one person adopted the Warburton name
about 750 years ago. This suggestion is supported by the depth of some of the
associated family trees. However it will only be when matches are foundand related
to the documentary evidence that we will have a better understanding of the
origin of these profiles.

Warburton
Haplotypes

Over recent years researchers have used a Single
Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) test on either mitochondria or the Y-chromosome to
divide the world’s population into a relatively small number of clans, defined
by haplotypes.The clans are
sometimes called haplogroups. By studying very slowly changing elements of DNA
they have determined sequences of change, and the age of specific changes. By
combining this data with the archaeological record they have determined
sequences of human migration around the world since the first modern humans left
Africa 50-80,000 years ago (depending on who you read).

A number of popular books have appeared on this
subject in recent years by writers such as Brian Sykes (‘Seven Daughters of
Eve’, and ‘‘Blood of the Isles’) and Stephen Oppenheimer (‘Out of
Eden’ and ‘The Origins of the British’). See References. To try and help,
Sykes and Oppenheimer give the clans, or haplogroups names but they are
inconsistent so I will ignore them.

Although
the Series Tandem Repeat (STR) test we use for this project is
different from the SNP test, it provides a prediction for your most
likely haplotype. I have had a Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP)
test and determined that my haplotype is R1b1b2. The designation of
some of the haplotypes has changed over time so I am using the most
recent designation.

R1b1b2
is a large subcategory of R1b. This covers 40-70% of the population of
continental Western Europe rising to 82% in Ireland. There are some
small sub-groups of R1b3, but the majority are not further delineated
and are identified by the star. Hopefully the future will produce
defining mutations to further differentiate them.

In
the meantime Stephen Oppenheimer, in The Origins of the British, uses
STR results to further subdivide haplotypes, though he doesn’t
publish the actual numbers so you can categorise yourself. That’s
available as a chargeable service.
Oppenheimer’s subdivisions of haplotype R1b includes a grouping which
matches the Atlantic Modal Type (AMH). This is defined by the values
for six of the markers in the STR test which are most common along the
Atlantic seaboard. I conform to this exactly so I can determine which
of Oppenheimer’s sub groups I am in. Some R1b profiles in the DNA
Project match the AMH so I am unsure which of Oppenheimer’s sub groups
they belong to.

It
should be noted that the underlying theme of Stephen Oppenheimer’s book
is that most British Y-chromosome lines have been present since the
Stone Age, and later invasions, even that of the Anglo-Saxons had
relatively limited genetic impact. The Celtic ‘invasion’ he sees as
merely a cultural migration. He hasn’t identified any specific Norman
markers that link back to Normandy, but suggests that due to
intermarriage they may not be entirely Norwegian.

Due to the work of Dr Ken Nordtvedt haplotype I can be subdivided based on the STR result. There is a haplogroup predictor which will further predict the subgroup (subclade) of anyone in haplogroup I.

The
following discussions of the origins of the Warburton haplotypes are
primarily based on Oppenheimer and Nordtvedt. The various haplotypes
are also discussed in some detail on Wikepedia, (google "haplotype nn",
where nn is the haplotype you wish to view) and at eupedia.com, though the latter embodies a controversial theory on R1b (see below).

R1b

Members of the R1b haplogroup,
are believed to be descendants of the first modern human
migrants into Europe some 35-40,000 years ago. This is known as the Upper
Palaeolithic migration and was characterised by the Aurignacian culture.
During the last Ice Age they retreated to a number of refuges in southern
Europe. The mutation that defines R1b occurred in the Iberian refuge. As the Ice
Age retreated groups from the refuges began to repopulate Europe, though the
process was interrupted by a fifteen hundred year cold period called the Younger
Dryas. which ended 11,500 years ago.

R1b1b2

R1b1b2 includes the major
proportion of the R1b haplogroup.

The
Atlantic Modal Haplotype

This sub-group of R1b originates from the Iberian
refuge. The first post Ice Age settlers remained in Britain (which was attached
to the continent at the time) during the Younger Dryas, but when a warmer
climate returned a new wave moved north from the Iberian refuge. It was this
wave that included the people identified by the AMH. The sub-group is still most
common in the Basque country but it is frequent all along the coastof Western Europe including Western Britain and the Channel coasts.It is present to a lesser extent in Scandinavia.

I

Haplogroup
I originated in Trans-Caucasus and entered Europe before the last Ice
Age, and is associated with the Upper Palaeolithic Gravettian culture.
During the last Ice Age members of this haplogoup retreated to the
Balkan and Ukrainian refuges. Here a number of sub groups evolved.
Modern day similarities between the incidence of various haplotype I
sub groups in Britain and in Scandinavia and Germany have been cited as
evidence of recent invasions of Viking and Anglo-Saxon elites. However
although some intrusions can be identified, especially when I sub
groups are further divided using STR analysis, the majority of the I
haplogroup migration into Britain occurred in Neolithic, and
pre-Neolithic times.

I1a-AS13

The
traditional view was that I1a evolved in the Balkan refuge, and
following the Younger Dryas they migrated into North West Europe.

Oppenheimer
defines seven sub-groups based on STRs with different concentrations in
Northern Germany and Scandinavia. He is able to identify groups within
Britain who arrived in Neolithic times (or earlier) as part of the
original north-western migration of I1a, and groups that represent
invasions of Vikings or Anglo-Saxons in historic times. It makes up
about 11% of the British population, mainly in England and Scotland.

However
recent research, including that of Ken Nordtvedt, suggests that I1
evolved much more recently in northern Europe, maybe 4-6,000 years ago,
and therefore its origin during and before the last Ice Age is
uncertain. I1a - AS13 is a subgroup that originates in Denmark or North
Germany and therefore was introduced into Britain by the Anglo-Saxons.

I2b - Cont 1

A
profile originally reported as I1c was judged to be I2b1-Cont
(Continental) by the Haplotype Predictor with a 69% chance of being
Continental 1. The area of its most dense presence is Northwest Germany
and Netherlands, then up into Denmark, and even Southern Sweden and
Norway. A good amount is also found in the British Isles, perhaps
brought there by the Germanic and Scandinavian invader/immigrants in
the historic era.

J2

J2 isthe
most predominant sub-group of the J haplotype in Europe. It may have originated
in the Levant before the last Ice Age. After the
ice retreated it spread into Europe along the Mediterranean, around Spain and
to the British Isles where it is most common in Southern England and Central
Scotland. It is considered to be a marker of the Neolithic expansion which
brought farming to Europe. This began about 10,000 years ago but reached Britain
only about 6,000 years ago.It is
virtually absent from Scandinavia, and both Wales and Ireland, but is present
across from Southern England in France.

The
Significance of Haplotypes

Before considering the significance of the haplotypes
it should be noted that only one, mine, has been tested. The others are
predicted from the STR results and might therefore turn out to be wrong. However
by comparing the STR results with near matches on the Ysearch, Ybase, and YHRD
databases that have also been tested for SNPs, it is possible to have reasonable
confidence in the predictions. Near matches with all the Warburton Rb1 profiles
are tested as R1b3, though this is unsurprising since this is such a large
group.

Because R1b is so common throughout Western Europe, it
is the I haplotypes thatare most
commonly used as a marker for various continental invasions, including from
Norway the original home of the Normans.

I found some work by Ken Nordtvedt that identifies
typical profiles of various I haplotype sub-groups. For example there are some
subgroups which are specific to the British Isles and others that are specific
to the continent.

The Warburton I1c profile is matched most closely with
a continental profile that has its highest frequency in the Netherlands,
northwest Germany, and Denmark. This covers the sources of both the Saxon and
Danish Viking invasions. There are 7 mismatches, which is the average number of
mismatches you would expectfor a
common ancestor 1000 years ago assuming 30 years per generation. The chances are
still good of a common ancestor 1200 years ago (typical for the Danish
invasion), but are less for a common ancestor 1500 years ago (typical for the
Saxon invasion).

The WarburtonI1a
profile was an even closer match, just 5 mismatches, from a sub-group that shows
a number of hits from Switzerland and southern Germany. This is the number of
mismatches most typical of a common ancestor 700 years ago.

The Warburton J2 profile has no close matches, though
the nearest on Ysearch, with seven mismatches in 32 markers, has tested as J2a.
The participant with this profile has documented links to Odard the Norman
invader. J2 is absent from Norway. In fact if you plot the journey of the
participant's ancestors from Norway to Normandy, and then to north west England,
where Odard and his family settled, and finally to Ireland, it is only in
Normandy that there is any presence of the J2 haplotype.So the most likely place the profile was picked up was through
intermarriage or inter breeding during the 200 years sojourn in Normandy prior
to the invasion of Britain. However while J2s may be rare in the Norse country
an individual J2 may well have migrated, or been taken there, so it cannot be
certain where it originated. Indeed matching J2 results are needed to discount a
much more recent origin.

The various identified
Warburton haplotypes have been present in Britain and areas of the near
continent for thousands of years. Whilst they may be useful markers for tracking
the impact of invasions or migrations they can tell us nothing of individual
movements. For example who knows where a mercenary legionnaire in the Roman army
may have chosen to retire to. Haplotypes bring an interesting story of ancient
origins but have little to say about more recent genealogy. An individualI1a, J2, or R1b might have British, Viking, Saxon or Norman ancestry.

My
Mitochondria

In the same way that the Y-chromosome can be used to
identify paternal haplotypes, mitochondria can be used to identify maternal
haplotypes. Unlike Y-chromosomes which are found only in males, we all have
mitochondria, although the DNA is passed only down the female line.

Mitochondria are quite small sequences of DNA relative
to a complete chromosome. They contain about 16,500 elements or bases. Two
sections of “junk” DNA are used for phylogenetic purposes. These are
labelled hyper variable segments 1 (HSV1) and 2 (HSV2). HSV1 looks at 4-500
bases starting at position 16001, and is the least volatile of the two sections.
HSV2 is typically used to fine tune results from HSV1, and it was used to help
classify the world’s population into 36 clans, and link those clans in the
currently accepted phylogenetic tree. The scientific term for a clan is
haplogroup. Of the 36 world clans, seven account for about 95% of the population
of Europe.

Mitochondrial DNA test results are presented in terms
of differences from the Cambridge Reference Model (CRS). The CRS defines a
member of haplotype H. Haplotype H is called Helena in Bryan Sykes’ book, ‘The
Seven Daughters of Eve’, and is the most common type in Europe. The use of
girl’s names for the clans derives from the fact that there must have been a
single woman who first had this specific mutation, and from whom all modern
bearers of that mutation are descended.

The Oxford
Ancestors test that I had done looks at positions 1-400 in HSV1 and this is
sufficient to classify a person in the existing tree. Just two differences from
the CRS classify me in haplotype J or Jasmine. These are at positions 069
(actually 16069 but the 16000 is dropped for simplicity), and 126. I have one
other mutation at 366 but this merely an extension of my Jasmine identity.

Jasmine is a complex haplotype with several defined
sub-groups. The other six main halogroups found in Europe are all believed to
have existed, or derived from groups that existed in Europe before the last Ice
Age. Jasmine, however originated in the Near Middle East (possibly the Caucasus)
and only moved into Europe when Neolithic farmers began to move into Europe
10,000 years ago. In fact the presence of Jasmine in Europe, but in relatively
small numbers (10% of the population) alongside the descendants of the earlier
hunter-gatherer population of Europe answers an old historical argument. Did the
gradual adoption of farming across Europe represent the migration of an idea, or
the migration of farming peoples who replaced the indigenous population? The
answer lies between the two. There was a migration of people, but they did not
replace the existing population and the idea of farming spread into the
indigenous population.

I found an interesting MSc paper
on the Jasmine haplotype by an Estonian called Piia Serk. This paper suggests
that the haplotype originated much earlier than Bryan Sykes’ book stated,
maybe 25,000 years ago. It found the major Jasmine subtypes present in the Near
East as well as Europe.

My additional #366 mutation was not found in the Near
East, but was present in 7 samples in Eastern Europe (5 of them in Albania). The
Oxford Ancestors database shows 6 Jasmines with the #366 mutation in the
England, and 3 in the USA.Unfortunately
the Oxford Ancestors database only allows exact searches so I cannot see how
many people have the #366 mutation and something else. I was however contacted
by a lady who originated in Scotland who has the #366 and #325 mutations, and
she pointed me to a paper that identified 3 more #366, #325s mutations in
Ireland. To complicate things even more there is a #366mutation in the Helena
clan.

There are two possible scenarios to explain the
presence of the #366 mutation in Eastern Europe and the British Isles. Firstly
the #366 mutation occurred soon after the Jasmines moved into Europe and so they
are spread all across Europe. This would be confirmed if #366s mutations are
found elsewhere in Europe. It is just possible there was a direct migration from
Eastern Europe to the British Isles (the wife of a Roman legionnaire?– or is my imagination getting the better on me?).

The second explanation is that there was a second #366
mutation in the British Isles. The #366 mutation in the Helena clan does suggest
that #366 may be a hot spot more liable to mutation than other locations.